Civil Servant

“Phew… What a mess this all is.”

As soon as Yona disappeared from view, Ceres frowned with all her might and sighed.

She even pressed her forehead, looking so visibly upset that Alec cautiously asked her.

“Um, Regent. Is something wrong?”

“Is something wrong? Of course there is.”

It was an immediate response.

The answer came back without any hesitation, somehow filled with emotion, and Alec couldn’t bring himself to ask what was wrong due to that intensity.

In fact, there was no need to, as Ceres started muttering to herself, but loud enough for Alec and Kairoc nearby to hear clearly.

“Demons popping up in the middle of the city, and just when I thought I could relax a bit by dumping things on the bishop and heading to Inpula, the dead start causing trouble, and not just causing trouble, but completely destroying a village, Semec of all places. This is all work. Everything. All of it. Every single thing!”

As Ceres said, Semec had become a ruin.

Although the buildings were still standing intact, there wasn’t a single person in sight, and not even the sounds of dogs and cats that each house would have kept, nor the cries of livestock that should have occupied the stables could be heard in this village—it was no different from ruins with only buildings left standing.

A village drained of all life, with only lifeless buildings remaining.

What else could this village be but ruins?

Ceres looked around with a gaze full of gloom.

Although shrouded in darkness, the full moon high in the sky was providing enough light to make it not too difficult to look around.

After surveying Semec, where it was hard to find even a trace of someone living, Ceres soon sighed deeply and said:

“And I have to write a report on all of this. If this damn Semec had been just a little closer to Inpula, the Church Territory would have written the report! But because it’s close to Capatia Port, I have to write it. Ah, I’m really going to lose it.”

Thinking that this was the lament of a civil servant, Alec kept his mouth shut.

For him, it was something he wouldn’t understand anyway, so there was no need to say anything else.

“Sigh… Anyway, we need to catch and finish this quickly. This damn vampire bastard…”

To Ceres, who was muttering curses, Kairoc, who had been walking quietly with his mouth shut, asked:

“How are you so sure it’s a vampire?”

It was an axe with its blade chipped and broken in places, roughly sharpened to have a pointed edge after removing the damaged parts.

The axe blade, reflecting the bright yellow moonlight, gleamed even more sharply and unevenly, looking all the more menacing.

Kairoc asked Ceres.

As Scarlet of the Crusader Order had said, the possibility of the culprit behind this incident being a deranged necromancer was very low, and it was likely to be either a vampire or a lich.

But Kairoc felt something was a bit strange about Ceres so confidently saying the culprit was a vampire, though he thought it must be because no magic traces were felt.

“Because I can’t feel any magic traces.”

The expected answer.

Kairoc thought for a moment, then asked Ceres again.

No matter what, this was an issue that had to be addressed.

“We’ve only just started searching, and we’re barely at the entrance of the village. But you’re already saying it’s the work of a vampire because you can’t feel any magic traces—I don’t quite understand what you mean.”

At Kairoc’s words, Ceres thought for a moment without saying anything.

Kairoc quietly waited for her response, and after a while, Ceres slowly continued speaking.

“You can just see it, can’t you? If there were any traces, do you think that cra—no, excuse me, that Crusader Order would be sitting still right now? They would have already caused an uproar. It’s because it’s a damn vampire that we can’t find any traces and are like this. Besides, I can’t feel any magic traces or demonic energy or anything either.”

“A vampire leaves no traces at all?”

For Alec, it was a genuine question out of ignorance.

From what he’d heard, since vampires are also high-ranking demons, wouldn’t they leave traces like demonic energy or something?

But he couldn’t understand how there could be no traces at all.

“Vampires don’t use magic. That’s why there’s no demonic energy or magic traces.”

“They don’t use magic?”

“Because originally, they were humans, not mages or demons.”

There was once a monarch.

The ruler of a kingdom whose name has been forgotten even in legends.

That king had an obsessive fear of aging and death, and every day he pressured his subjects to find an elixir of immortality.

His powerful and vast kingdom bought supposed elixirs of immortality for a fortune every day due to the king’s pathological fear, and because of this, the kingdom fell deeper into ruin with each passing day.

Then one day.

A woman visited his kingdom.

The king was about to drive away the woman who claimed to have lived for a thousand years, thinking she was insane.

But the woman proposed a bet to the king.

She said she would tell the king stories of her life every night from that day, and if after a hundred days the king still didn’t believe that she had lived for a thousand years, she would willingly die.

The king accepted the bet, and after a hundred days, the king fell in love with the woman.

And on the last day, the woman told the king something.

It was that while there is no elixir of immortality in the world, there is a secret technique that can achieve immortality.

Following the woman’s words, the king immediately beheaded a thousand of his people and collected their blood.

Using that blood, the woman drew a massive magic circle and activated it.

His kingdom where millions of people lived.

The red veil that covered that kingdom mercilessly sucked up the blood of the people beneath it.

It sucked up the life of not only humans but everything living and breathing on that land all at once, and after consuming tens of millions of lives beyond millions, the veil turned the king into something that was human but not human.

Thus, his kingdom was destroyed.

A land where all life disappeared.

In later generations, people called that land the Great Desert.

“So, in the end, it’s human. An abnormally strong human, and a cursed human. A cursed human who can’t die because they have tens of millions of lives, let alone not aging. That’s what we call a vampire. A vampire who wouldn’t even show any signs after giving a few thousand false lives to the dead.”

“Tens of millions of lives, that’s quite horrifying.”

Alec shuddered and shivered.

A vampire—classified as a high-ranking demon yet not a demon, remaining in the category of humans who don’t spread demonic energy.

A being called a vampire not because it directly sucks blood, but because its origin lies in tens of millions of lives, that blood.

The fact that it’s a terrifying existence remains unchanged.

*

“Hm?”

Yona, who was playing a hand-clapping game with Rubina, flinched and trembled when she saw someone suddenly open the carriage door and enter.

Scarlet also made eye contact with her but soon pretended not to see and entered the carriage, sitting down on the seat.

And of all places, it was right across from Yona.

The back still straight as ever, the gaze fixed straight ahead.

In other words, staring directly at Yona.

Yona found such a Scarlet too burdensome.

“How was the reconnaissance?”

James spoke to Scarlet in a friendly manner.

In fact, James also didn’t quite like Scarlet, who had treated Yona rudely.

Still, since they were in the same boat anyway, it wouldn’t be bad to get a little closer, at least until they reach Inpula.

“There were no traces at all. It seems to be the work of a vampire, but it appears further tracking will be difficult from here.”

At Scarlet’s words, James turned to look at Yona.

Yona also glanced at James for a moment and nodded.

In fact, it was better for them.

It’s not like they can just keep wasting time here.

Yona has her own purpose of needing to go to the mage community, and after arriving in Inpula, James also needs to return to his home.

They had no amateur sense of justice or anything like that.

Although they ended up moving with the hero’s party somehow, it was just because of money.

They’re not interested in saving the world or preventing calamities.

“Then, are we returning to Inpula now?”

“That seems best. Several days have passed, so whatever the root cause is, it will be difficult to track further from here. However, after reporting to the Pope, we’ll have to continue the pursuit.”

Phew.

Yona let out a sigh of relief.

She had worried that he might say something like “You four are suspected of heresy, so I’ll have to follow you!” but fortunately, that wasn’t the case.

And at that moment, the carriage door opened.

The silver-haired beauty entered the carriage and opened her eyes wide when she saw Scarlet already there.

“Sir Scarlet was here first?”

“It turned out that way. It was rather difficult to find any traces. Are we just waiting for the Hero’s party now?”

“Come to think of it… the Hero and the Saint haven’t returned yet. Should we go look for them?”

At those words, Yona raised her hand and stood up abruptly.

Rather than sitting face to face with that tin can called Scarlet or whatever, it would be much better to go out and find Lud and Bigr.

“Then I’ll go! There was nothing dangerous outside, right?!”

“Well, I didn’t feel any magic traces or demonic energy, but still be careful. Don’t trip over any rocks.”

“T-that’s fine, I’ll take this baldy with me!”

Yona grabbed Alec’s arm and quickly got off the carriage.

Ceres said something from behind, but she couldn’t hear any of it.

“Whew…”

“Wait, why me?”

At Alec’s grumpy voice, Yona turned around sharply and glared at him.

“Hey, were you going to let me go alone?”

To Yona, who was glaring with her eyes wide, Alec also grinned.

“How could I do that? We’re comrades. Comrades.”

“Right? That’s right, isn’t it? We’re comrades. You should come with me. Right?”

Khihihi, Yona laughed with an oddly unfitting sound.